Chapter 6

Squeeze my hand harder if you must, Sarah! Let me share what you feel!”

Virginia hadn’t meant to say those words, as if she herself longed to feel the excruciating pain of childbirth that Sarah suffered, if only in her fingers. Certainly she had never allowed herself to dream of being a mother, at least not since she was little more than a child herself. But at the moment she would give anything to take some of the pain from her dear friend, who grunted and pushed as no lady in society would admit, in order to free the life that had grown inside her and allow it to join the world as its own little person.

“Oh! Virginia!”

“I’m here, Sarah. You’re doing everything right, just as you always do. Now let me feel the next push, and with the doctor’s help we’ll get to meet your little darling!”

It wasn’t quite with the next push, but soon enough Virginia was wiping sweat from Sarah’s brow, brushing away her mussed hair, and placing the bundled and squirming baby boy into her friend’s arms.

The miracle of life made Virginia’s heart soar for Sarah. And for John. And even, a little bit at least, for the distant uncle who would have his heir after all.

When Virginia opened a parlor window the morning after little Elijah Turnbridge was born, it didn’t take long to smell that something not far away must be amiss. She looked outside, wondering if a nearby house had a problem with its boiler or stove.

“Fire! It’s in your building, Mr. Turnbridge!”

Virginia heard the boy before she saw him, the same one commissioned to run for the doctor last night. Now he ran with his bony arms flailing at the same time as he rushed up the porch and banged on the door before she could reach it.

“Get Mr. Turnbridge! His building’s afire!” Then the boy hurried back from where he’d come, not bothering to wait and see if his warning made it to John.

Virginia was half tempted to run after the boy, thinking of her own building’s proximity. But she knew what she must do first. She went upstairs to find John.

She could barely utter the words that would be in such sharp contrast to the joy he surely felt at Sarah’s side, staring in amazement at the son they had created together with God’s help. At least she could spare Sarah from too much worry. They didn’t even know the extent of the fire yet, and it might not have touched John’s office at all.

Besides that, the real importance was their family was intact. John’s office and all of its contents could certainly be replaced.

“John,” she whispered, seeing Sarah was nearly asleep beside her dozing child.

He came from the bedroom, meeting Virginia in the hall.

“I think we had both better go to your office. A boy came running down the street, saying the place was afire.”

“What!” He sprinted toward the staircase but stopped at the top, looking back at the door to the room where his wife and child lay. Before he could even ask, Virginia spoke.

“I’ll make sure your housekeeper watches over her,” she assured John. “I’ll follow as soon as I can.”

“Must you? Can you stay until I return?”

She wanted to, but with her own uncertainty growing, so fresh on the heels of devastating tales from Chicago, she knew her own worries would only multiply.

“I’m a little eager to be sure my own place is all right. Would you mind if I just ran over to make sure then came right back? Sarah will be all right. Surely both she and the baby will sleep awhile after the night they had changing the world.”

John offered a grim smile and a slight nod. “You’re right, of course. You’ll let the housekeeper know, then? They’re not to be left alone?”

“Yes, John, of course. Now go. I’ll follow as soon as I can then hurry right back.”

Everything went exactly as planned until Virginia turned the corner to the block where she worked and lived. She peered through a crowd of staring and pointing onlookers who repeated phrases like “what a blessing it didn’t spread” and “God surely watched over the neighborhood with the losses so contained.” Before she could decipher why the street’s landscape looked so shockingly different, John appeared and took both her hands.

“I’m so sorry, Virginia. So sorry.”

She stepped around him, and the crowd parted politely, silence taking the place of the sounds she’d heard just moments ago. Then she saw what everyone else had already seen, and she gagged trying to take in a breath of the sooty air.

John’s three-story building was gone, leaving behind only the charred ruins of a few stubbornly standing beams in memory of the floors and walls they’d once supported.

And her own two-story shop and apartment building was nothing more than a heap of still-burning rubble.

It couldn’t be simply gone. Not gone! Hadn’t someone just said God had surely protected their neighborhood? How could He have done that, while allowing her home and business to burn?